Friday, 19 June 2009

Wimbledon 2009 is almost here and various advertisers are using the All England Tennis Championships as a platform for their brand. There are a number of new initiatives and here are 5 examples of Wimbledon 2009 advertising / marketing:

1) IBM's G1 mobile, Wimbledon Augmented Reality

IBM (long time Wimbledon technology partner) have created an Augmented Reality App for T-mobile G1 phones. Working off the Android platform, the IBM Seer Wimbledon Augmented Reality app allows users to point their handsets to a court and then see real time match information overlayed on the screen. Furthermore 'when users point their G1 at food courts they'll get information about what's on sale. The 'Seer Aggregator' will also let fans receive real-time Twitter feeds relevant to Wimbledon with players, commentators and a team from IBM all signed up to add content to the service.' (source: Brand Republic)

2) Evian 'Live Young' Wimbledon 2009

Evian are using Russian tennis star Elena Dementieva as the face of their Wimbledon 2009 campaign. A microsite www.evianatwimbledon.com has a range of interactive features and Evian are also tweeting @Evianinsiders - as well as featuring Wimbledon in their 'traditional' advertising.

The Evianinsider Wimbledon Twitter account

3) The official Wimbledon iPhone App

The official Wimbledon 2009 iPhone app is developed by IBM and is currently a featured app in the iPhone App store. The app offers users the chance to 'follow the action LIVE during the fortnight' and features News Updates, Live Scores, the daily schedule of play, the draws and On Demand video.

Screengrabs from the Wimbledon iPhone app

4) Robinsons Wimbledon 2009 TV ad

Not that Robinsons are trying to put any pressure on Andy Murray, but their TV ad for 2009 is based around Wimbledon having the first British champion for generations!

5) EA Grand Slam tennis (with Wii Motion Plus)

EA have a big advertising push around the new EA Grand Slam Tennis game and the release is timed to coincide with both the Wimbledon tournament and the availability of the new Wii Motion Plus system.

EA Grand Slam tennis advertising on the front page of Sport magazine

Not content with taking over Sport magazine, EA have also created a Facebook application to support Grand Slam tennis. The Facebook application allows users to 'Challenge your friends in QUICK CHALLENGE and become part of the ultimate quest to climb the global leaderboard and win the prized Grand Slam cup. Pick your shots wisely with your favorite tennis superstar, ace your friends, and publish your custom match movie to your news feed or blog for everyone to see. Experience the excitement of the ultimate tennis challenge on Facebook.'

Facebook EA Grand Slam tennis application screengrabs

Traditionally tennis games uses names and places that allude to the real people or the real places, but (as EPredator writes) it is nice to see that EA Games Grand Slam Tennis uses avatars based on real players coupled with actual Wimbledon logos and gaming environments that are based on the actual Wimbledon courts.

The intensity of the Wimbledon tournament, coupled with the prestige of the Championships, always sees brands experimenting with different ways of creating association and new technology - looks like this year will be no exception!

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